


Triple Drive

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: M/M, Polyamory, Post-Canon, So Many Background Ships I'm Not Tagging Them, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26448697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Or: Oh My God, Three Of ThemTokoha sighed.
“The things I do for friendship.”Shion and Tokoha have always planned a surprise party for Chrono's birthday. It's important. It'stradition.Unfortunately, Chrono has three boyfriends.
Relationships: Anjou Tokoha & Kiba Shion & Shindou Chrono, Ibuki Kouji/Shindou Chrono, Jaime Alcaraz/Ibuki Kouji/Onimaru Kazumi/Shindou Chrono, Jaime Alcaraz/Shindou Chrono, Onimaru Kazumi/Shindou Chrono
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15





	Triple Drive

**Author's Note:**

> Stumbles into the tag four whole days too late hello I was sick but Chrono would judge me for putting fic writing before health so here I am.  
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRONO (and Happy Birthday Kamui, cries.)
> 
> Anyway I've been wanting to write a Chrono Has Three Boyfriends fic for a while. While this isn't really meant to be a sequel to [Sweet's Tooth](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14018400), it is probably its spiritual successor. This was also my chance to actually focus on Chrono/Jaime a bit, because I'd never actually written for them.
> 
> PLEASE ENJOY.
> 
> (p.s. If you read something and start wondering "wait, are they implying [insert other polyship here]," the answer is Probably Yes)

“Shion,” Tokoha said as soon as his face appeared on the other end of the video call, “we need a strategy meeting.”  
True to himself, despite it being the wee hours of the morning (she _had_ waited for it to be a decent hour in Japan, but only just barely), he was impeccably dressed, inasmuch as one could be impeccable in a luxurious dressing robe. The perfect hair was probably part of it. Or maybe it was the velvet.  
“Good morning to you too. What are we plotting about this time?” he asked, unashamedly brightly.  
“Chrono.”  
“Ah. I see.”  
“We need to get our act together like _now_. It’s already August.”  
“I thought you were coming here in two weeks? Shouldn’t we look into this then?”  
“Shion. The guy has _three boyfriends_. One of which is almost rich as you, the second of which is going to have to come all the way from Europe for this, and the third of which I suspect of having a fetish for organisational spreadsheets, and is covertly clingy to boot. Do you _really_ think he’s going to have a single day of the week left free if we wait even a day more to start planning?”  
Shion considered the matter for a second.  
“… I see your point. Well? What were you planning on doing?”  
“I mean I was hoping to continue our time-honed tradition of surprise parties, but there’s no way we’ll manage to actually do that now.”  
“We could?”  
“How?”  
“Simply enlist them to help.”  
Tokoha stared at his face. His smile didn’t falter.  
“… you’re the one calling Jaime,” she finally said.  
“Tokoha. You’ve seen him at the euro league. He’s literally in Paris _right now_.”  
“Yes and what do you think he did when we fought?”  
“Decimate your rear-guards?”  
“I mean _after_ the fight. Which I won, by the way, thank you very much.”  
“Congratulations. Well, out with it. Was he flirting with you again?”  
“Yes. Well, kinda. He brought me flowers.”  
“You do play Neo Nectar.”  
“Shion, stop being obtuse on purpose.” She sighed. “He’s not even pushy about it like he used to be but… I dunno, I kinda thought he’d stop now that he’s dating Chrono, but that’s not stopping him apparently.”  
“I haven’t asked for the details, but I’m fairly sure that relationship is open on both ends. That being said, he hasn’t actually _actively_ pursued anyone since, so I think he might be less of a butterfly than one might expect. The flirting, well… that’s just his personality.”  
“… I know.” She sighed again. “And I know he’d _never_ miss Chrono’s birthday, too. He might be a joker and a flirt, but when he’s serious about something…”  
“And he’s serious about Chrono,” Shion agreed cheerfully. “But you know what else Jaime would never miss out on either?”  
“… a party.”  
“A party,” he confirmed.  
“Fine. I’ll go talk to him. He might even have good ideas on how to get Chrono there.”  
“That’s what I like to hear. I’ll find a way to talk to Kazumi—although you should probably message Kazuma too—and as for Ibuki…”  
“… yes?”  
He smiled.  
“Why don’t we let Taiyou handle it?”

Life, many people argued, was best enjoyed by going with the flow, seeking small happinesses and not fighting against the current for goals out of one’s reach.  
Unfortunately, this was absolutely unacceptable when one was Shion Kiba, and he found the very idea offensive. He only had so many years, and giving up on anything was, frankly, not something he was willing to lower himself to.  
He had tried, when he was young and foolish, and it had gone _terribly_ , and he had henceforth resolved to never again try something as stupid as attempting to limit himself. When he wanted something, he looked at it for a second, and either dismissed it as unimportant, or found that he actually cared, in which case he didn’t waste time wallowing in envy and what-ifs, but went straight for his goal. He’d found that not spending time daydreaming about things or agonising about whether he _should_ reach for something or not actually saved him an incredible amount of time, which of course he was then free to use to actually achieve his goals.  
Thus, having decided that he _would_ indeed team up with Tokoha to rope Chrono’s boyfriends into helping them organise a surprise party for him (for tradition’s sake; Tokoha _was_ right to uphold it, they couldn’t let Chrono relax like this), he quickly had breakfast, sent his guests on their way as soon as they were pleasantly refreshed and fed too, got dressed, and called Iwakura.  
“I thought you didn’t have any appointments this morning,” Iwakura pointed out, an eyebrow lifted high with the weight of many implications.  
“I didn’t. But something has come up. How long will it take us to reach Tokyo University at this hour?”  
Iwakura smiled.  
“You know I appreciate a challenge, sir.”

Tokyo University was huge. Thankfully, Shion had his ways, and had put the shockingly short drive to use to get his hands on Kazumi’s schedule. Anyone who knew him any more personally than as a pretty face on a vanguard magazine knew he would never skip class, and would likely be one of the last to exit the room, whether he actually liked the class’s topic or not.  
And sure enough. As Shion stood his ground a few meters behind the doors, letting students walk on either side of him, Kazumi finally exited, clutching a folder under one arm, a well polished leather messenger bag at his side. It took him only a second to notice Shion.  
“Shion?” he asked, eyes widening, stepping towards him. “What are you doing here? It something the matter?”  
“You don’t have another class right now, do you?” Shion asked, brightly. Of course, he knew the answer to that.  
“I don’t. Did you need me for something?”  
“I do, actually. Would you mind giving me some of your time? I’ll treat you to coffee.”

“So,” Shion said as they sat down with their cups. “I assume you know Chrono’s birthday is coming up.”  
“In a little over a month, yes.” He paled suddenly. “I didn’t get the date wrong, did I? I’m _sure_ I double checked twice when I wrote it down…”  
Shion laughed.  
“No, no, you’re fine. Or I think you’re fine. It’s on the ninth of September.”  
Kazumi sighed in relief.  
“I know this is early,” Shion continued, “but Tokoha pointed out that with the schedule the four of you tend to have, and how _involved_ Chrono is, our chances of him not booking every minute of his birthday week for all of you were slim.”  
“I…” He paused. “… you’re probably right.”  
Shion grinned.  
“He’s a dedicated partner, isn’t he?”  
Kazumi smiled.  
“Yes.”  
“So, let’s get right into it. Do you _already_ have anything booked? Any particular plans?”  
“… I did consider inviting him to dinner, but doing it on my own felt unfair… I was going to ask Ibuki about it, but I was pondering the best way to bring it up. There’s nothing actually booked, on my side at least. Ibuki is generally good at communicating if anything comes up that would involve us, so I doubt he has anything either… but I can’t speak for Jaime. He might have something ready whether Chrono himself is aware or not.”  
“Tokoha will deal with Jaime,” Shion informed him cheerfully. “Well, if you don’t have anything planned, will you listen to our idea?”  
“Go ahead.”  
“Each year, we organise a surprise party for Chrono. At this point, though, it’s gone on for long enough that he probably expects it. He’ll be suspicious.” He smiled. “But if one of _you_ invites him, we can lure him to the party without him suspecting us. We can even set up a decoy invitation on the next day so he expects us then. And then we can have the three of you at the party itself, too! Which means Chrono actually gets to have all his boyfriends in one place—unless that’s a problem for you guys—and there’s no feeling guilty or having regrets about trying or failing to invite him yourself on the day itself. You’ll be there regardless. And then we can rely on Ibuki’s organisation skills to make sure you can all have your alone time the rest of the week without accidentally conflicting.”  
He sat back and smiled, satisfied. Kazumi’s eyes had just gotten wider as his speech went on, but from his face, Shion could tell he was already convinced.  
“A surprise party… yes, that could be nice. But where? Bringing him to any of our houses would be too suspicious, and I’d feel guilty imposing on Mr. Nitta…”  
Cheerfully omitting the fact that they had imposed on Shin for such events many times in the past, Shion considered the question.  
“Hmm… maybe all of us could pitch in to rent a space for the afternoon. Or Ibuki might be able to free us a room in the main branch. Or the Star Gate one.”  
“Wouldn’t he find the idea too unprofessional?”  
“In general, yes. But for Chrono?”  
“… I see your point.” He paused. “Magallanica branch has rooms for such events… I believe Jaime is on good terms with the branch chief, and if you invited Luna and Am…”  
“… he’d bend over backwards just to please them,” Shion agreed, snapping his fingers. “Good thinking, Kazumi.”  
Kazumi laughed a little, blushing.  
“Oh, no, I’m just building on your idea.”  
“Well, your building is excellent,” Shion said cheerfully. “Now, for the second part of the problem…”  
“Yes?”  
“How do we lure Chrono in? For that matter, how do we stop him from planning something on his own?”  
“Well, on that topic… I think Ibuki would be more useful to you. Of course, if you need me to be the bait, I’d be happy to, but when it comes to the days leading up to it…”  
He trailed off. Shion tilted his head ever so slightly, magnanimously allowing him time to find his words without pushing.  
“… I don’t think I can spend time with him just before this event. I’m fine with preparing this as a surprise, but having a date that serves only to keep him occupied would feel…” He paused again. “… I don’t want time spent with him to be fake or shaped by lies. The very reason I love being with him is because he’s such an open and earnest person; I don’t want to deceive him in return.”  
He looked away, looking both guilty and relieved about having spoken his mind.  
The man really was too pure for the world he and Shion had to live in. That a few secrets could _taint_ a romance for him… how cute.  
Just the kind of person Chrono couldn’t help but be drawn to. Shion had been surprised, when he’d noticed the first hints of budding romance between them, but the more he got to know Kazumi, the more he felt like it was in its own way inevitable, even if it wasn’t as embarrassingly obvious as a certain other combination within this quartet of very unique players.  
That being said, he did have a point, and a better one than he thought, even. Because now that he thought about it, getting _Ibuki_ to lie to Chrono in that way would be equally impossible. And in that particular case… even he couldn’t blame Ibuki for being careful, after that first year they knew each other. Some things were better left in the past.  
Which meant…  
“… so we need to make sure he doesn’t try to go out with any of you before the day itself. It’d be better if you took the rest of the week instead.”  
“Yes… I’m really sorry.”  
“Oh, no, don’t be. Ibuki will be the same, and anyway, I think it’ll probably be easier this way.”  
Kazumi looked at him questioningly.  
“Leave everything to me. I’ll take care of Magallanica… and as for Chrono…” He gave Kazumi his best winning smile. “We’ll just have to keep him very busy.”

Stepping back into his waiting car, Shion took out his phone, and pressed one of the few entries in his personal contact list.  
“Shion? What’s wrong? Did we forget something at your place?”  
“No, no, not at all. Say, is Am still with you?”  
“Yes, she’s right here. We were about to start practice.”  
Life was decidedly smiling on Shion Kiba. This was why he never wasted time in reaching for what he wanted.  
“Could the two of you do me a favour?”

Tokoha may not have known whether that statement should be preceded by ‘fortunately’ or ‘unfortunately’, but what she did know was that Jaime Alcaraz was, as always, very easy to find, especially for someone who didn’t actually live in Paris.  
The man was astoundingly social, putting even Tokoha’s own busy and people-filled life to shame, and even without calling him, one only needed to ask around to find at least one person who’d seen him or heard of him in the last twelve hours, and in the rather small circle of Vanguard pro players who gathered in Paris, there were only so many places people really hung out, especially people as eager for a fight as Jaime (or, if she was honest, herself. There was a reason she ran into him so often). Thus, all it took was a few questions at the Parisian branch to learn that he usually attended the mini-tournament the Association organised for children ten and under every Wednesday afternoon, and all she had to do was show up at the community building that hosted the event to find him as predicted, wearing a copy of Thavas’s hat and wielding a very flimsy plastic sword as he assigned tables to pairs of children.  
Could she have had this conversation by phone? Yes. Was she willing to? No. When dealing with Jaime, she preferred to see him in person, both because he was ironically easier to channel when talking face to face and because it meant they could talk over a drink. And this whole situation really did call for a drink.  
Fortunately, this was France, and no one could stop her from having it.

“Tokoha!” he exclaimed when he’d finished talking to children and looked up enough to actually see her. “Why is such a lovely flower gracing us today?”  
She sighed. He’d been loud enough that several children had also looked up at her, and already whispers of _it’s Tokoha Anjou_ and _wow she’s even cooler in real life_ and _I thought she was taller_ were coursing among the crowd. The downside of no longer living in Japan was that Chrono was no longer there next to her to attract _that_ particular element of surprise.  
And speaking of Chrono.  
“Are you free after this?” she asked. “I need to talk to you. About Chrono,” she added, before he could start flirting again.  
She hadn’t thought that it was physically possible for Jaime to brighten even more. She was immediately proven wrong.  
Chrono really did have that effect on him.  
“Of course! But!” he added, brandishing his sword dramatically, “the children come first. You’ll have to wait until the end of the tournament.”  
“I would expect nothing less,” she said, mellowing and smiling a little. “Do you need help?”

“So, amiga, what troubles you so?” he asked once they had packed up and gone down half a block to the nearest café. “You don’t often come to see me.”  
Tokoha decided to cut to the chase.  
“We need all three of you to help us organise a surprise birthday party for Chrono, and we need _someone_ who’s capable of playing a part to help us keep him busy the few days before because apparently neither Ibuki or Kazumi will be up to the task. You’re our last hope, Jaime.”  
Jaime’s eyes widened with mirth and mischief.  
“A surprise party?”  
“You know we do one every year, but since _this_ year he decided to date three whole people, we thought if we did nothing, he’d probably end up fully booked for the whole week and we’d never manage to get any time to grab him for it. But if you help us…”  
“Of course I’ll help you! But it’s a good thing you came to see me now: Ibuki has already been asking me what day I’m thinking on taking the plane to Japan.”  
Tokoha groaned.  
“I thought so.”  
“Have you talked to him already?”  
“No… Shion talked to Kazumi, and we thought we’d ask you before actually going to see him. Well, before asking Taiyou to talk to him, probably. He knows him better.”  
Jaime raised an eyebrow at her.  
“Are you putting it off? You shouldn’t keep him out of the loop, he _hates_ when his plans are turned upside down. He puts a lot of effort into them.”  
“I know… I know, it’s just…”  
She trailed off, and Jaime, unhelpfully, waited for her to continue.  
“He’s so…” Various words went through her head, ‘intense’ the first of them, but it felt a little unfair. She might not be close to Ibuki, but she did like him. “… serious. Especially about Chrono. I wish he’d actually _relax_ sometimes.”  
“Can you really blame him? He thought he’d missed his chance forever, only to find out that he did have a chance after all, but in a way he’d never considered before. Is it that surprising that he’s so serious about making things work?”  
“… when you put it like that, I guess.”  
“He’s in love,” Jaime, said, softer. “If it’s for Chrono’s sake, you know he’ll do almost anything, and happily too. You just need to give him time to get his bearings.”  
She nodded.  
“But yes!” he added, more brightly. “You’re right that he probably won’t want to be the one to play red herring, which is where I come in! Don’t worry, Tokoha, I will save your Surprise Party Operation.”  
She rolled her eyes, but smiled, taking a sip of her glass.  
“So, do you have any ideas?”  
“Oh, I do. In fact, I know _exactly_ what we can do.”  
“I’m all ears.”  
“I’ll book a plane to arrive in Japan on the fifth, like I’d originally planned to do. I’m almost never there, so if I ask him if we can hang together on those days before I have to leave a few days later, I’m sure he’ll put that first, especially if neither Kazumi nor Ibuki ask him to spend time with them on those days.”  
“Yeah?”  
“… and then at the last moment, something terrible will force me to stay in Spain for three more days,” he said, wiping a fake tear.  
Tokoha smiled.  
“I like the sound of this.”  
“He won’t have time to plan something new, _and_ I can have him get me at the airport on the eighth. And while I’m still ‘recovering from jetlag’, he can be invited by, say, Kazumi, to your party.”  
“Are you sure he won’t just try to do something during that time?”  
“Well, I’m counting on you and Shion to keep him busy!”  
“… we can probably do that,” she mused. She’d feel bad dumping _more_ association work on him, but Shion was bound to have a brilliant idea.  
“Good! Just tell Ibuki so I can actually tell him my plans. Unless you want him to hear about it this way?”  
“No, no, we’ll tell him.” She chuckled, feeling somehow both chastised and relieved. It was strange, how Jaime could be an insufferable flirt one moment, and the most comfortable confident the next. Sometimes, she’d almost fall for his airhead mask, but moments like these always reminded her of who he really was.  
Jaime Alcaraz was not someone who should be underestimated.  
“So when are you going back to Spain?” she asked, taking another sip of her wine.  
“Next thursday. I want to attend the next tournament before leaving.”  
“Isn’t that already over?” Then the truth hit her. “Oh! You mean the kids’ one?”  
“Of course! The Euro League is fun and all, but this is where the real fun happens.”  
She couldn’t repress a smile. That was adorable.  
“… you really love kids too, huh? That’s one thing you two have in common.”  
“Me and Chrono?”  
“Yeah.” She chuckled. “Honestly—no offence, but I was kinda shocked when I heard you’d asked him out and you were together.”  
Jaime burst out laughing. It wasn’t even loud, but the candidness of it and the pure amusement on his face stopped her in her tracks.  
“Hah!” He exclaimed, gleeful. “No, I didn’t actually.”  
“Huh?”  
“I didn’t ask him out. He’s the one who kissed me.”  
“… what. Really?!”  
“It was very cool of him, actually,” he added, brightly. “The one man who’s ever made me blush!”  
“You say that,” Tokoha said, slowly recovering, “but I’ve seen how you act around Leon Soryu.”  
“That’s different! Master Leon is my _hero_. Chrono is… Chrono. He does it by just being himself. You know what I mean, right?”  
“Oh, I do,” she sighed. “The moment he cares about something, he starts getting all intense and unstoppable and people start swooning around him. I hear even _Kanzaki_ isn’t immune. Didn’t think he was the type.” She took a large gulp. Jaime grinned and sipped at his much more afternoon-appropriate coffee. “Sometimes I just wish I had videos of him being a dork and punching the air to prepare for a fight just to break that image.”  
“Ah, but that’s part of his charm too,” Jaime told her cheerfully.  
“What, being a dork?” she teased.  
“Being honest, and genuine about his excitement. Which is also when _you_ shine the brightest, I might add. When you allow yourself to be.”  
She blushed, and again, half was at the compliment, and half was embarrassment. She’d never get to complain about Jaime’s flirting at this rate if he kept calling her out like that.  
“Okay fine you’re right. I didn’t think _you_ were into the Cool And Forward And Unstoppable type though. Kazumi, yeah, sure, that’s a family trait I think, but you?” She thought back to the Leon incident. “… actually maybe it makes sense.”  
Jaime laughed.  
“A man is allowed to have some secrets~ It’s more fun that way.”  
She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help the smile that came with it.  
“But you know,” Jaime said, staring at his coffee with a fond, quiet look on his face, “you were right earlier.”  
“Huh?”  
“That we have a lot in common. You said we both love children. That’s true. Do you know why he does?”  
“… I kinda always just thought it’s part of his personality. He likes taking care of people, and kids are enthusiastic and direct so…”  
“Yes. But even his caring about people in that way comes from somewhere, you know. He’s been alone for a very long time, and the people he loved, the people who were supposed to be there for him or take care of him… either they abandoned him, or they were taken away. That’s why it’s easiest and safest for him to do the caring himself. Because he can trust himself. He knows _he_ won’t run away. Trusting others to watch over him and not disappear… that’s harder.”  
It made sense. It made so much sense, like something that she’d always known, in a way, but Jaime put such clear words to it that she suddenly couldn’t help but stare it in the face.  
“… oh.”  
“He doesn’t just _like_ kids. He’s very good with them, because before Mikuru took him in, other children were the ones he could take care of. He got through those years by being himself and taking charge.” He smiled, a little bittersweet. “I’m sure if you found the children who were with him and asked, some of them would tell you they saw him as a big brother even though he was the same age, or slightly younger.”  
How had she never figured that out? She _knew_ what he was like, and she knew that he’d been in an orphanage, because he’d finally opened up to her and Shion about it a few years before, but she’d never really put two and two together.  
“… how do you _get_ him so well?”  
Jaime paused, then looked up at her, his face more naked than she’d ever seen it.  
“Did you know I grew up in an orphanage too?”  
“I—no. No I didn’t.”  
Shion might have. But she wasn’t Shion.  
In the light of what he’d just told her about Chrono, Jaime’s own aggressive and forward affection for the whole world was taking on a whole different shape.  
“I spent most of my life there. And I might never have broken out of my loneliness and self-pity if someone hadn’t gone out of his way to give me hope. Well,” he added, face warm and bittersweet, “I was on the street for a while before that, so the orphanage itself was an improvement. Emilio gave me both. My future and my hope.”  
“Emilio… that’s the man who always comes to see your fights when you’re in Japan, right?”  
He nodded.  
“He helped found homes for children like me all over the world. And he’s the one,” he said, taking out his deck, “who gave me Thavas.”  
“Oh!” A faint memory came back to her. How far away it seemed, the beginning of the G quest. When they’d had no idea of the war they were already involved in. In a way, it was even further removed than the days before she met Chrono and Shion. “Right. But you didn’t have any other Aqua Force cards yet.”  
“I didn’t. But just the gesture was enough. It was… hope.” He looked down at the card in his hand, smiling. “I didn’t hate my time at the orphanage. And neither did Chrono. Although,” he added, his smile a little sad again, “I think that’s in part because he’s so good at making the best of things. He had it harder than me there. But it’s what led us there that hurts, more than the place itself. When you’ve been abandoned, it doesn’t really matter how nice where you end up is. Not until you find a new way to live.” He brightened, and there was so much fondness on his face that she almost felt like she was intruding on something. “We both found our ways. Our way to live, and our way to pay back what was given to us, and pay it forward. That’s why I want to make others smile. Just like Emilio taught me to smile again.”  
She nodded, understanding, but too stunned to talk. It was hard to picture Jaime as anything but the sunny, loud, confident person he was now. But then again, who could ever, if they met Chrono now, imagine the repressed, depressed, lonely boy he had been when Tokoha first met him?  
But Jaime had seen through Chrono right away when they met. Faster than her and Shion, even. And maybe that was why. Maybe that was why they fit together so easily now, even though no one had seen it coming.  
“Chrono and I… we understand loneliness in a way most people don’t. We don’t need to explain it.” He grinned, tilting his head to the side a little. “But that’s also why I understand Ibuki. It’s very different circumstances, of course, but I know what it’s like, to have someone reach out to you and change your entire world.”  
Tokoha chuckled. The bittersweet mood seemed to have spread even to her, and she didn’t _like_ bittersweet moods, but right then, with Jaime, with the late afternoon sun finally mellowing after hours of scorching rays, with her glass of sweet wine resting comfortably in her hand, filling her senses with calm, gentle pleasure, she found that it was all right. It was comfortable.  
It felt, almost, like standing with Chrono and Shion under a very similar sun three years ago, and watching the last coats of paint being applied to the newly rebuild Dragon Empire branch, remembering both the carefree days of learning to have fun and the bitter war fought on its grounds and beyond. And then throwing themselves into the re-opening ceremony and events and all their boisterous excess.  
“You know,” she mused, “back when they had that one fight and Chrono called him a stalker, I thought it was gonna make things worse between them. Chrono got so wound up whenever he came up… I thought it’d only get worse. But then… looking back, it feels like that’s when everything changed. When he started coming to us… coming to Chrono, to _talk_ about things. Ask for our help. Keep us posted, ask for our opinion… for _his_ opinion, especially.” She looked down at her glass, and smiled. “Remember that time he invited us all to eat to drop the news about the Stride Gate being in space? That’s when we realised something had changed, I think.”  
“Not before?” His voice was amused, and she looked up to see his eyes glinting. “You don’t talk to Kamui enough.”  
“… what’s that supposed to mean?”  
“Nothing, nothing~”  
She eyed him suspiciously, but he just beamed at her.  
“So, do you know where you’re doing this surprise party?”  
She decided to give it up. For such a chatterbox, it could be surprisingly hard to get anything out of Jaime when he decided something was a secret. Which, of course, was why he was the right man for this job.  
“Yes, Kazumi thought we could book one of Magallanica’s event rooms… Shion already asked Am and Luna for help, but maybe if you let the Chief know you were coming…”

Kouji Ibuki liked making plans.  
It was his job. It helped him make sense of his time and add some structure to a world that was determined to throw crisis after crisis at him. It often saved the hides of numerous people who didn’t have plans of their own and thus clung to his when it turned out he had them. It created a schedule that he could refer to whenever he found himself doubting whether his memories of the last hours, day, years were actually real. And it gave him things to look forward to, be it something small like a holiday, or something big, like _Chrono is coming tonight, and he’s sure to want to make curry, with so many vegetables in season_.  
(The fact that he could now tell which vegetables were in season was a testament to how much Chrono had sunk his roots into his world, and it felt strange to feel so… adult. To feel like he had a faint idea what he was doing, rather than scrambling for survival from one day to the next, learning the most basic of life skills through misexperience and never reaching any further. In the last couple of years, and the last months especially, he’d found himself feeling almost _stable_ , and whenever he thought about it, he was still reeling, which maybe showed that he wasn’t that stable after all.)  
Kouji liked making plans, and when it came to the early days of September, his plans had been to invite Chrono to spend some time with him on the day before his birthday, since he had no doubt Mikuru would want to spend at least part of the day itself with him, and the thought of taking up the other half of that day, whenever he tried to consider it, quickly made him shut down with embarrassment and honestly a side of guilt, and he found himself back before he’d actually thought it, as if his brain had rewound the entire thought process.  
Unfortunately, he found out, looking at the schedule for European Vanguard events, Jaime would probably be coming to Japan a few days in advance to have plenty of time to spend with Chrono and his other friends, and considering how rarely he was in the country, he’d feel bad taking up some of that time. He could see Chrono whenever he wanted, after all. It would be unfair.  
So, he remade his plans. Tentatively, waiting for Jaime to actually text him back regarding his schedule. Treating Chrono to cake too long in advance would probably be weird, so instead they could just have a normal evening together, and he’d celebrate his birthday a few days after the fact, although he would of course send him a long message on the day itself.  
And then, as he was still waiting for Jaime’s response, he received a message from Taiyou Asukawa instead.  
And his plans were scrapped once again.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Taiyou said when they met, after he’d explained the plan. “I just don’t know why they’re so hung up on making it a surprise, considering the logistics… it’s fun, but if it stresses him out too much beforehand, it takes the fun out of things…” He sighed. “They said it was ‘tradition’.”  
Kouji didn’t care much for surprises. But that one time they had surprised Chrono by all showing up to a _planned_ meeting ahead of time and having everything ready for his arrival had been a moment full of joy, one of the highlights of the last few years—and thus, considering what the years before _that_ had been like, one of the highlights of his life.  
If they could recapture the spirit of that day, maybe it would all be worth it.  
(And maybe, just maybe, he was excited to actually spend his actual birthday with him, even if it was with many other people around. Being alone wasn’t important. Seeing joy on Chrono’s face? Celebrating the birth of the person who lit up his world? That was important.)  
“… what we need to do is make sure that he already knows he will get to see us in the following days,” he said. “Otherwise he’ll worry that he’s slighting us. Jaime’s plan has merits… it justifies focusing on the second half of the week. I think it’ll work.” He sighed. “Although he could have contacted me himself…”  
“I think he wanted Shion and Tokoha to do their own work,” Taiyou said, a subtle grin on his face. When they first met, he’d reminded Kouji of himself, but the more he grew up, the more he could see Ren Suzugamori in him instead.  
… a much more reliable Ren Suzugamori.  
“But I’d already agreed to come, and this was my chance to actually see you,” Taiyou continued, sunnily. “How have you been doing?”  
Kouji thought about the three events he was juggling.  
“… I’ve seen worse,” he sighed. “For August, it’s manageable.”  
“Do you need help?”  
“… if you just keep helping the United Sanctuary branch, I will greatly appreciate it.” He paused. “… have you ever considered becoming Clan Leader? You’d be a great fit for the job.”  
Taiyou laughed.  
“Kazuma said the same thing.”  
“He’s right.”  
A small, sharp smile flashed across Taiyou’s lips.  
“I’ll think about it. Although I’d have to find time for the test before anything.”  
Kouji nodded.  
“Now,” Taiyou continued, “about Chrono…”  
“I’ll message Kazumi and Jaime,” Kouji said with another nod.  
Jaime had always been as adamant as Ren that Kouji use his first name, the kind of persistence that made _not_ using it much more stressful, but going from ‘Onimaru’ to ‘Kazumi’ had been an experience, and one that had sparked its own miniature existential crisis. The fact that Kazumi was good at projecting the kind of confidence that usually kept Kouji on his toes hadn’t helped. Nor the kneejerk nervousness he still felt from the days when Kazumi’s body had been inhabited by someone else, someone bent on causing harm and much more gifted at manipulation than Kouji himself.  
But on the other hand, the experience of having one’s own body torn from one’s control was an experience Kouji could strongly relate to, and once they got over the awkwardness of the situation (helped, he was embarrassed to admit, by a few glasses of sake the very first time, although Kazumi had excellent taste in it—another point in his favour), he found himself much more comfortable with the calm young man than he ever expected.  
With time, he thought, he might actually be able to call him a close friend. If things kept running smoothly, the way they had until now, the way he was determined to keep them. As always when he hoped for anything, it felt a little bold, but Kazumi was such a person that it actually felt achievable.  
As for Jaime himself, well, it was hard not to feel at ease around his easy laughs and sharp insights, once you got over the nervousness, and he’d been a valuable ally ever since he’d more or less wormed his way into the fight against Company all those years ago. Kouji even suspected him of having been so overt about his relationship development to kickstart him into action.  
It had worked. The results were much too important to waste time and feelings on being self-conscious about it.  
The very fact that he was able to not feel too self-conscious was proof that Jaime was, in some small ways, rubbing off on him.  
He sent a short text message to Jaime, who would doubtless call him, and a much longer one to Kazumi, who could be trusted to hold a conversation via text.  
“There.” He put his phone down. “What are the plans for the party itself?”  
Taiyou considered the question, his lips almost pouting in thought.  
“… you know, they’ve been all talking about the logistics of it and how much of an emergency it was, but I don’t think either Shion or Tokoha have any actual plans for _what_ they want the party to be like.”  
Typical. This was why, despite wanting to quit every year, Kouji still did the job he did. People _always_ got caught up in the details and forgot essential things. Like what to do at an actual event, when the concept itself was what obsessed them.  
Thankfully, this _was_ his job.  
He pulled up a spreadsheet.  
“Let’s make a temporary plan. If anyone has objections, we’ll have plenty of time to correct it. Are we all bringing food, or should we pool resources together and pay for catering?”

“Whose party is this again,” Tokoha grumbled on voice chat, going over the extremely detailed plan Ibuki had dropped into the group chat newly created for the occasion while Jaime kept texting excited suggestions.  
“Let them have their day,” Shion chuckled. “It’s the first time they get to celebrate his birthday as a couple. Quartet. Be proud of being the catalyst!”  
Tokoha rolled her eyes. On the screen, Ibuki answered one of Kazumi’s questions with a suspiciously detailed account of Chrono’s food tastes.  
“And without you, none of them would have dared invite him on the day itself,” Shion added helpfully.  
She sighed.  
“The things I do for friendship.”

Birthday celebrations had always been a bittersweet affair for Chrono Shindou.  
Of his early childhood, he remembered only the fourth, nebulously. He remembered that his father had been there, for once, and that the cake had had strawberries, and that Mikuru had wiped cream off his nose after he tried to bite into his slice.  
The next birthday, he celebrated at the orphanage. And the two after that.  
It wasn’t that the staff didn’t celebrate it. But no cake can replace a family. And as respected, as arguably loved as he was by the other children, especially the younger ones, no amount of respect and affection could replace closeness. It was a genuine attempt, but one that made him feel guilty more than anything, for the effort they put into something that he couldn’t even properly appreciate.  
Mikuru was granted permission to take him out for the day, and that made him feel guilty too.  
For the next few years, birthdays were private celebrations. Mikuru and him, always. She bought cake, and they ate it together, but the guilt never left. She tried, once, to get her feelings across, to let him know how grateful she was that he had been born, that he was still alive, but to his closed, damaged, muted young mind, the words had fallen flat. He knew, now, the truth of it, had understood her feelings once he experienced passionate, protective love of his own, but to the child he had been then, he doubted any words would have gotten through.  
And then Shion and Tokoha. That first year, the embarrassment of still not knowing how to be fully relaxed at a party, especially yet another surprise one, of breaking down crying when faced with a pile of presents. It had been sweet, in a way that hurt, because it showed how much of him still needed to be pieced back together. How much of his childhood had not existed, an experience that they all shared but he had only read about in stories.  
The next year, there had been more people. Ibuki, finally no longer hiding bandages under his clothes. Luna and Am. And that was a celebration of their victory, of their survival. Of not having lost people dear to him again. The wounds they all had to nurse were deeper, but they were all looking towards the future.  
Over the next two years, there had been new additions. Shion and Tokoha, somehow, always managed to organise a surprise party, and at this point, he expected it. Why they still insisted on it when it didn’t really constitute a surprise anymore, he wasn’t sure, but they were his best friends, so he decided to let them have their fun.  
But this year was complicated.

He probably only had himself to blame. That he’d be allowed to hold so many important people intimately close still felt a little dizzying at times, when he paused to think about it instead of happily going about his life. They all grounded him, each in his own way, but the concept itself still hadn’t fully sunk in. And as his birthday drew close, the logistics of dating three people who were _all_ enthusiastic about celebrating his existence even on the most normal of days became a nagging source of quiet existential dread at the back of his mind.  
He was relieved, a few days before the end of August, to get a message from Jaime that read **I’ll be here on the fifth! I talked with Ibuki, he wrestled a schedule together, if you’re okay with it.**  
With the reassurance that they were communicating and that he wouldn’t accidentally sideline anyone, and the very conspicuous invitation Tokoha gave him to ‘a mini-tournament’ on the day after his birthday, he felt a little more at ease, and confirmed that he’d pick Jaime up at the airport on the evening of the fifth.

Of course, because his good luck only ever extended to pulling cards out of a deck, nothing went as he’d actually planned it.

“It’s not like you to be so gloomy,” Shion said, smiling as he waved at an awestruck passerby.  
Chrono sighed.  
“In case you forgot, I was supposed to go home to my _boyfriend_. Who I haven’t seen in real life for _over three months_.”  
And instead, he was there, basically serving as bait for Shion’s university Vanguard Club event. How he could be any more famous than Shion Kiba, especially in his own university, he had no idea, but Shion had assured him that he had many silent fans who would pay real money for a chance to see him in person, and somehow, judging by the amount of people who came up to them looking more bothered by the (now much more tolerable) heat than they should, he seemed to actually be right. Why people didn’t just come to the events he participated in as Clan Leader instead, he just couldn’t make sense of.  
“Oh, don’t sulk. You’re picking him up tomorrow, right? And at least now you’re not being miserable alone at home!”  
“I would have gone to help Ibuki with the prep for all these back to school events, honestly,” he sighed.  
“Yes, because you don’t work enough already. I swear he’s a terrible influence on you. At least here you don’t have to do more than look cool and play Vanguard.”  
“You know the more I try to look cool, the less cool I look, right? And I’m not starting from a high point.”  
“Chrono, if you don’t stop with the modesty, Tokoha and I are going to start documenting every time someone swoons in your presence.”  
“No one swoons in my presence.”  
“Chrono. _You have three boyfriends._ ”  
Chrono shot him a Look. Unfortunately, in doing so, he caught sight of a young woman who was probably their senior by a couple of years, and had been staring shyly in his direction. She blushed and quickly fled. Shion smirked.  
“That’s rich coming from _you_ ,” Chrono grumbled.  
“Oh, even I wasn’t always immune to your charms,” Shion answered him cheerfully.  
“… _what?!_ ”  
“I did feel the urge to kiss you once or twice, back in the day. Of course, at the same time, I was also fighting the urge to punch you in the face, so I didn’t do either. And then we actually became friends, and both urges evaporated, to my relief.”  
“… this explains so much about your love life,” Chrono sighed.  
Thankfully, he was saved from his friend’s further teasing by another student, who _actually_ came to talk to him this time. He jumped on the chance to help him build the Gear Chronicle deck he’d been dreaming of, and then helped him test it, and from there was invited to more fights, and before long, he’d lost himself in the excitement of actually fighting someone and had all but forgotten the revelation of his best friend’s extremely short-lived hatecrush.

On the next day at the same hour, Chrono was standing right outside the arrivals gate of Narita Airport, feeling incredibly more cheerful despite the cloudy weather. Jaime, as usual, was one of the very first people out of the gate, being both a frequent flyer and a very fast walker, and Chrono only had time to grin before he was smothered in a whole lot of Jaime Alcaraz.  
“Chronooooooooooo!”  
Chrono laughed, and pat what he could reach of his back. He’d long since stopped caring about people’s stares, especially where Jaime was concerned.  
“There, there…”  
“I missed you!”  
“Me too. How’re the kids?”  
“Good! Sorry I had to cancel on you like this… we all made something for you as apology.”  
Chrono closed his eyes, and let his head rest on the front of Jaime’s shoulder, just for a second.  
“It’s fine. I’m just glad you’re here now.” He pulled back and smiled. “Let’s get you home. You can tell me everything on the way.”  
“Oh, I will! But before that…”  
He bent down, and planted a quick kiss to Chrono’s lips.  
(Contrary to Shion’s claims, Chrono was the one to blush madly.)  
“Hah!” Jaime exclaimed, straightening. “I feel revived! Okay, let’s go-go!”

Jaime did, in fact, tell him everything, from the news of the European Vanguard scene that Tokoha had missed since her temporary return to Japan, to the health and antics of Jaime’s numerous not-siblings from the orphanage he’d grown up in, to the latest developments in Jaime’s favourite Spanish soap opera. The long train ride went by so fast that Chrono only got them off at the appropriate stations through sheer reflexive muscle memory at the sound of the station names.  
When they finally got home, Chrono was happily surprised to find out that Mikuru had come home early and prepared an early birthday dinner, and all three of them got to sit down and enjoy the food after a long (and in Jaime’s case, longer) day.  
“I’m glad you’re finally here,” Chrono confessed, once they were actually in bed, Jaime comfortably curled against his side in a fairly good cat impression.  
“… I’m really sorry,” Jaime answered, even more serious than Chrono expected. “It was for a good cause, but…”  
“It’s fine…”  
“I’ll do my best not to disappoint you again,” Jaime said, honest and determined. And then he shifted so he could look at him directly, grinning. “So, how does it feel?”  
“… honestly, whenever I think I’ll be twenty next year, it doesn’t feel real,” Chrono murmured. “It’s like I grew up so much and things happened so fast and I’m still trying to process stuff that happened when I was fifteen.”  
“Just imagine how it feels to _Mikuru_ ,” Jaime said, and Chrono couldn’t stop the laugh that came from his chest.  
He felt a little lighter already.  
“I’m too scared to even ask her,” he chuckled. “But yeah… you know… when I was a kid, time always seemed to drag on forever… I guess ‘cause I was always in such a hurry to grow up? But ever since I met everyone… things just seem to go faster, and stuff keeps _happening_ , and it just… feels like I never really got time to breathe. And now I’ll be fully an adult next year…” He paused. “That’s how old Mikuru was when she took me in, you know?”  
“Exceptional circumstances. Listen, Chrono, I have _no_ doubts that you’d make an exceptional father or guardian in her situation, even now, but believe me when I say _none_ of us want you to put any more pressure on yourself than you already do. Not your friends, not your partners, and _especially_ not Mikuru.” He pushed himself up on his elbow just enough to reach for Chrono’s forehead and flick his finger at it. “You’re too old for your age. Try to enjoy being nineteen without already projecting yourself on twenty, will you?”  
Chrono blinked. And then, from deep inside him, another burst of laughter came.  
“I—okay, fine, I deserved that one.”  
“You did. Don’t make me call you an old man a whole year early,” he threatened, and Chrono, unfortunately on his back, was denied the chance to hide in his pillow and groan.  
“You guys are never letting me live this down, are you?”  
“Never,” Jaime told him with a grin. “So make the most of your last year. And if you need someone to be childish and silly with, well!” He gestured at himself dramatically, bowing with a flourish. From his position, it only made him comically faceplant into Chrono’s stomach, and Chrono had to hold back another laugh. “That’s what yours truly is for!”  
“What would I do without your, uh, childish self,” Chrono chuckled, thinking back to the deep conversations they somehow always ended up having when they were left alone.  
“And my dashing good looks,” Jaime added with a wink as he straightened again.  
“And that,” Chrono agreed with a grin.  
And before Jaime could deliver another witty line, his mouth opened on a gigantic yawn.  
“Go to sleep,” Chrono told him, rolling his eyes affectionately.  
“I wanted to wait for midnight… to wish you Happy Birthday,” Jaime grumbled. “But alas… I’ll just have to do it tomorrow afternoon. You’re seeing Kazumi for lunch, right?”  
“Yeah… he said he booked a GIRS too. You’ll be fine here on your own, right? Mikuru won’t be here either but there’s food in the fridge…”  
“Chrono, love, if I’m even _awake_ before mid-afternoon, it’ll be a miracle. Go have fun.”  
Chrono laughed.  
“Fine, fine. Now get some sleep.”  
“Yessir,” Jaime hummed, and within two minutes, he was, indeed, asleep.

In the morning, he woke up to find that Mikuru, for once, had left before him, although she had left a nice breakfast on the kitchen table.  
Neither of them were morning people. When he was younger, Mikuru had made more of an effort to get up early and finish work early in the evening so she could actually spend time with him, on days when she was actually home, but as he left school and started shifting his schedule slightly later, she had gratefully made the most of her self-employed status, and generally didn’t leave the house before half past eight.  
But today, Chrono had been (forcibly) given the day off by the rest of the branch, and thus he had only emerged at around nine, and only because his phone vibrated under his pillow.  
Jaime, tangled in bedsheets, was apparently undisturbed.

With the prospect of a large lunch, he only ate part of his breakfast, then put the rest away, leaving a note for Jaime and taking care of his daily chores. Then, deciding he’d rather be early than late, he took a shower and put on some fresh clothes, and after one look at the weather forecast, decided to take public transport to Ikebukuro.  
He loved his bike, but the less sweat he had on his body when he arrived for his date, the better.

He was a good fifteen minutes early when he exited Ikebukuro station, but to his surprise, when he walked up to the statue where they were supposed to meet, Kazumi was already there.  
He was staring at it with a faint smile, and with the sun shining almost straight down and illuminating his hair, he looked every bit the shining model who often graced the pages and covers of Vanguard magazines and had contributed to the repopularisation of Nubatama.  
And then he turned as the sound of Chrono’s voice, and the brightness of his smile eclipsed even that.  
“Chrono!” he beamed as Chrono walked up to him.  
“Hey,” Chrono answered with a smile of his own. “You’re early.”  
“So are you. Happy Birthday,” he said, taking Chrono’s hands in his own. “Thank you for being here.”  
“I—I mean—thank _you_.”  
Part of him wanted to flail around, but Kazumi’s smile and Kazumi’s hands kept him in place.  
“S-so, why did you want to meet here?” he asked, diverting the intensity of Kazumi’s focus. “Where are we going?”  
“Oh, I thought this was a good landmark. I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t get lost otherwise.”  
“You hardly ever get lost anymore,” Chrono chuckled.  
“True. But I like this statue,” he admitted. “I like this neighbourhood in general. It reminds me of Kazuma.”  
Chrono stared at him in confusion for a second, but then caught sight of the statue behind him again.  
“… because of the owls?” he asked, laughing.  
“Yes! Look at this one! Isn’t it cute?”  
“… gotta admit. It is.”  
“I’ve been thinking of bringing him to an owl café… but enough about that. Today, we’re celebrating _you_!”  
“So where _are_ we going?”  
“Magallanica branch, of course! They upgraded their GIRS recently.”  
“Here’s hoping I don’t overload it this time,” Chrono sighed. “So what time are we supposed to be there?”  
“In half an hour. We have plenty of time. Shall we take the scenic route?”  
Chrono laughed.  
“Sure.”

The “scenic” route apparently involved window shopping. Several times, Chrono had to remind Kazumi that they had somewhere to be, although it was painful to tear him away from his excitement, if just with a kind word. But despite the detour and frequent pauses, they did arrive at the branch at precisely 11:12, just on time to get to their booked room for quarter past.  
Or so he thought. As they came in, Kazumi walked right past the reception, towards the main body of the branch’s building.  
“Wait!” he called, confused. Kazumi was normally _extremely_ good at protocol. “Aren’t we checking in first?”  
“Oh, there’s no need. I already worked it out with the Branch Chief,” Kazumi answered him easily.  
But still… usually he’d have at least told them he was there, for the sake of safety. This was so unlike Kazumi that he didn’t even pay attention to his surroundings as he followed, trying to unravel his motivations. Could he be up to something? A surprise of some sort? But what _could_ there even be at Magallanica branch aside from, well, a Vanguard event of some sort, or the very GIRS that Kazumi had advertised to him?  
“Ah, here we are,” Kazumi said, opening a door and all but pushing Chrono in with his perfect manners that just compelled one to move. “After you.”  
It was only as he took a step inside the dark room that Chrono’s senses of self-preservation and déjà-vu woke up. Unfortunately, they only got one second to react, which was just enough for him to feel like an idiot, and definitely not enough to run away.  
“ **HAPPY BIRTHDAY!** ”  
He didn’t get time to blink. Light exploded into his eyes at the exact same moment that confetti and streamers exploded into his face.  
When he finally blinked vision back into his eyes, he found Shion, Tokoha, Kumi and Trinity Dragon in various stages of standing and kneeling, armed with confetti guns and shit-eating grins, and behind them, having the decency to look slightly guilty, Ibuki, and not looking guilty _at all_ despite having probably teleported out of bed the second Chrono exited the apartment, Jaime.  
He shot Jaime a Look. Jaime blew him back a kiss.  
Behind him, Kazumi closed the door and took a step closer, resting a hand on his shoulder.  
“Happy Birthday,” he said, voice soft and fond, and Chrono found himself melting a little. “I apologise for the deception. It was for a good cause.”  
Chrono exhaled, half sigh and half laughter.  
“I’ll forgive you this time,” he said, turning to smile at him to let him know he did mean it. “You won’t catch me underestimating you ever again, though.”  
Kazumi smiled back.  
“Oh, people always do. Well, shall we?”

They did not get time to do much. Before they could take two steps forward, Kamui barrelled through the line of teammates and rivals to throw himself at Chrono, holding back tears.  
“Chronooooooo!”  
Struck with déjà-vu for the second time in as many minutes, Chrono pat Kamui’s back.  
“There, there…”  
“Has it been five years already… you grew up so fast… I’m not ready for this,” he sniffed.  
“Four years and a half, technically.”  
“Look at you!” Kamui exclaimed, pulling back slightly but grabbing his shoulders instead. “When did you get so…” He trailed off, eyes on Chrono’s swirl, and, probably realising that he could hardly finish his sentence with ‘tall’ when he was still towering over him by almost half a head, looked down instead, his eyes falling to his sternum and shoulders and widening. “… buff?”  
He pushed Chrono back even further to further stare at him, taking in his arms and chest, and seemed to have an existential crisis.  
“He really is, isn’t he?” Jaime said brightly, hopping over to where they were. “Strong inside and out!” He bent down to whisper in Kamui’s ear. “And he can make the most of it in private, if you know what I mean.”  
Chrono felt his cheeks heat up faster than a GIRS during a Chrono-Luna fight. Thankfully, his reaction was eclipsed by Kamui, who let go of his shoulders so he could clamp his hands over his ears.  
“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!!!”  
“I want to hear about it, actually,” Tokoha said, materialising next to them.  
“No.”  
She stuck her tongue out at him.  
“Happy Birthday, Chrono,” Shion said, appearing at her side with the perfect smile of someone who definitely didn’t drag him to his university event as distraction. “I have to say, you were hard to catch.”  
“Can you believe,” Kamui said, holding on to Chrono’s shoulder and glaring at Shion and Tokoha, “that these two delinquents didn’t even involve me in their scheming?”  
“… I would take it as a compliment, if I were you,” Chrono told him.  
“Sorry,” Tokoha said. “We weren’t sure you could keep it a secret without it eating at you at night.”  
“What!?”  
“Well, you have to admit…” Shion said.  
“I can’t believe this! I didn’t track down Myoujin behind your backs for months to hear this slander! Where’s Ibuki, I need him to back me up here!”  
Tokoha stared at him.  
“Wait, _what_?”  
“Did you really think I was _that_ bad at school? Really???”  
“… I can’t believe I was successfully fooled by Kamui of all people,” Shion breathed, frozen in shock.  
“Speaking of Ryuzu,” Kazumi said, taking an envelope out of his bag, “It was too complicated to bring him here, but he drew you this.”  
“And this one is from the kids back home,” Jaime said, handing him a larger envelope. “I wasn’t lying about that~”  
A little too emotional to even pretend to be actually mad, Chrono accepted the envelopes and opened them. The first one contained a surprisingly detailed crayon drawing of Chronojet holding hands with Chronofang Tiger. The second, much more irregular in style, a large scale drawing of Chrono himself, in his Vangamen outfit, complete with special effects.  
“Handsome,” Tokoha teased, looking over his shoulder.  
“You two should be on this too,” he shot back, but he folded the drawing back very carefully before putting it back in its envelope. “Is there anywhere I can put these down safely?”  
“I’ll take care of it,” Kazumi offered, and as he walked away towards the side of the room, Karl called Tokoha over for something about music, and Chrono was finally left with enough room to breathe, take a few steps forward, and find his way to the major player who still had to actually make himself heard.  
“Kouji!”  
Ibuki’s face, as he turned to face him, was infinitely, disarmingly soft. Chrono found himself immediately and efficiently disarmed, words almost failing him.  
“Happy Birthday,” Ibuki said, packing into those two words all the emotions that he hadn’t let out in weeks of talking to anyone else.  
“I…” This time, words actually failed him. He looked away for a second, before forcefully grabbing his wits again and hauling them back into place. He looked back up and smiled, hiding the shaking he could still feel in his chest. “Thank you.” And because he felt like he would explode, he laughed a little and added: “Sorry they dragged you into all this scheming.”  
“It’s fine,” Ibuki said. He took Chrono’s hands and kissed his fingers, once. “Was it a nice surprise?”  
Chrono faltered. His boyfriends needed to stop rubbing off on each other before they all acquired each other’s weapons and rendered him completely helpless.  
And the worse was, Ibuki probably didn’t even do it on purpose. He probably didn’t even _realise_ that Chrono was having an existential crisis.  
“… it’s good,” he somehow managed to croak out.  
Ibuki _beamed_ , and Chrono knew he wouldn’t have the heart to complain about his friends’ scheming ever again for the rest of the evening, if ever.  
At that very moment, a horrid mechanical screeching caused both of them—and the rest of the room—to cover their ears.  
“Sorry!” Tokoha called from her impromptu DJ spot. “Should be fixed now!”  
Music filled the room, thankfully at a much more bearable volume. Chrono and Ibuki looked at each other.  
“Want a glass of something?” Chrono asked, unable to contain his grin as the atmosphere got to him. “I’m parched.”  
Ibuki smiled back.  
“Please.”

Once he’d taken a seat, things became much more manageable, if still lively and a little chaotic. Everyone took it as their cue to bring out their presents, and before long, he was covered in a pile of them too big to reach his glass anymore. Even Hiroki, who was a fixture of any social event Taiyou went to at this point, had brought him something. Surprisingly enough, he wasn’t having a friendly argument with Kazuma for once, which left said ex-classmate free to come congratulate him in person.  
“Happy Birthday, Casanova,” Kazuma said, grinning and dropping his present on the pile already occupying Chrono’s lap.  
Chrono groaned.  
“Please don’t call me that.”  
“You’re dating my _older brother_. I get to call you whatever I want.”  
_As long as it’s not ‘big brother’_ , Chrono thought, but he didn’t say it. He didn’t think either of them would survive it, but just in case, he didn’t want to risk it. Kazuma and Tokoha were good friends, and who knew what influence she could have had on him.  
“Chrono!” Kumi called, skipping up to them. “Did you try the sandwiches yet? I made them?”  
“I would, but I’m a little tied up,” he said, gesturing to the pile of presents.  
“I’ll take care of it,” Ibuki said, and before Chrono could react, he’d piled most of them onto his arms and gone to the same corner Kazumi had taken his drawings earlier.

Once everyone was done with their congratulations and presents, things finally actually settled down. It looked like everyone had contributed to the very varied buffet, from Kumi’s sandwiches to mini-croquettes Tokoha had probably commissioned from her favourite bakery, to extremely fancy savoury bites brought by Shion. There were even cutely cut raw vegetables, which he probably had Kei to thank for. About an hour in, Mikuru arrived, and was given a seat not too far from his.  
“We thought she wouldn’t want to miss this,” Shion told him, proud, “so we contacted her last week.”  
“Happy Birthday, Chrono,” she told him, radiating happiness. “Did you really think I wouldn’t have left a note to wish it at the very least?”  
“I mean, I did think you were gonna wish it later,” he laughed. “I just didn’t think it’d be this early.”  
“I may have gone to work earlier than usual and made some extra time,” she said. “So! Should I take out my present now, or do you want it this evening?”

A couple of hours, an impromptu live from Luna and Am, a surprise visit from the Magallanica Branch Chief and some Vanguard fights to help all the food settle down later, they brought out the cake.  
“Ibuki and I made it,” Kazumi told him, proudly unveiling the cream-covered cake. “… after some practice.”  
Although the words woke some alarm bells in his mind, Chrono decided to trust them. If one thing could be said about both Kazumi and Ibuki, it was that neither spared any effort to reach their goals, when the goals actually mattered. If they said they had practised to learn to bake, then he was honestly more worried about how much time they had spent on it than he was about the taste.  
“Well, are you going to cut it?” Mikuru asked.  
He took the knife and cut out the very large cake in half, then quarters, then finally cut out the first slice, and immediately perked up as it revealed green cake inside.  
From the corner of his eyes, he caught Ibuki giving Kazumi a satisfied, almost smug look.  
“Oooh, matcha shortcake?” Tokoha exclaimed. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually tried the combination.”  
“The strawberries reminded us of you,” Kazumi admitted.  
“I hear that one a lot,” Chrono sighed, but he smiled up at him after putting the slice down in the first plate. “But I do like them.”  
“So tell us how it tastes!” cried Tsuneto from the other end of the table.  
“Shouldn’t I give everyone their slice first?”  
“I’ll do it,” Shion said. “It’s your birthday after all.”  
“And I’m sure those two are anxious to hear your expert opinion”, Tokoha added with a wink, grabbing the knife from his hand and handing it to Shion.  
Well, she was probably right on that point. He sat back down and took a bite of his cake.  
Immediately, he smiled. The cross-section showed where Kazumi and Ibuki had run into some trouble with the tricky sponge cake’s tendency to collapse after baking, but when it came to taste, they had absolutely nailed it. The matcha cake was refreshing, and the tea’s flavour pronounced enough to compliment the strawberries and balance the sweetness of the cream.  
“It’s delicious,” he told them, honest, and was rewarded by brilliant smiles.

It was getting close to four when Kazuma came up to him, pointing at his watch.  
“Well, it’s about time you get moving. You’d better hurry if you want to get back to Asakusa on time.”  
Chrono, who’d been watching Ibuki and Taiyou fight while Jaime stayed true to his clingy cat impression by leaning on his back and watching over his shoulder, looked up at him, confused.  
“Huh? On time for what?”  
He looked at Ibuki, who actually looked equally confused. Twisting to look at Jaime yielded similar results.  
Kazuma smirked.  
“You didn’t think we’d tell you guys _everything_ , did you?”  
“This is the last part of your present,” Shion said, magically summoned by the opportunity to look smug. “But don’t worry, you won’t need to take the train. Your car is waiting for you outside.”  
“We thought we’d book you a restaurant at first,” Tokoha said, following not far behind Shion, “but after all this food, we thought it’d be a bit too much. So Kazuma had a better idea!”  
“… _what_ idea?” Chrono asked, suspiciously.  
“You’ll see!” she beamed. “Now finish your fight and get going! Iwakura’s waiting just outside the branch.”  
Ibuki shot Taiyou an apologetic look. Taiyou laughed.  
“Please go ahead and finish me off. We both know this was the final turn anyway.”  
“… my apologies. Messiah attacks your vanguard.”  
Taiyou took his sixth damage and checked his seventh, just out of curiosity, and Chrono went to look for Mikuru.  
“I’ll get your presents home,” she told him before he could even ask. “Now don’t worry about anything and go have fun.”

“What do they even have planned in Asakusa?” Chrono asked as he, Jaime, Ibuki and Kazumi packed into Shion’s car.  
“You’re the local,” Ibuki said. “Does anything come to mind?”  
“Not really.”  
“Asakusa has a lot of restaurants,” Jaime piped in, “but she said it wasn’t one…”  
Iwakura, of course, smiled, and didn’t tell them anything. Chrono didn’t try to ask him. Not only was he loyal enough to Shion to scheme behind his back for his own good, but the butler was a scarily efficient driver and a proficient fencer; Chrono wouldn’t be surprised if he had more hidden skills. If the secret agent-like, overly-trained bodyguard butlers from anime existed at all, Chrono had no doubt that Iwakura was one of them.

They were deposited on the banks of the Sumida river.  
“… not that it doesn’t bring back memories,” Chrono said, looking around, “but what do they want us to…”  
“There,” Jaime exclaimed, “look!”  
A brightly lit boat was making its way to the nearby pier.  
“There’s boats all the time,” Chrono rationalised. “I think this is one of the biggest hubs, even.”  
“No, I think he’s right,” Kazumi said.  
“Huh?”  
“This is a private cruise company. And there’s no one on board.”  
Chrono looked around. Aside from them, none of the nearby people had reacted to the approach of the empty boat, especially not anyone who looked rich enough to book a private cruise.  
The boat pulled up into place. A man in a fancy uniform stepped out.  
“Mister Shindou and company?”  
“I can’t believe this,” Chrono muttered, frozen in place, but thankfully, Kazumi had already stepped forward, his public smile ready. Jaime followed after him happily. Chrono and Ibuki looked at each other and went after them, as fast as they could without losing all dignity, something Ibuki was more successful at than him.  
“That would be us,” Kazumi said pleasantly.  
The man looked at each of their heads in turn, then bowed.  
“Please follow me.”

“I still can’t believe this,” Chrono said as the boat leisurely sailed away towards the bay.  
“Just imagine doing this at night,” Jaime sighed, dreamy. “It’d be so romantic.”  
“Sorry for being born in September,” Chrono joked.  
“I’ve never actually taken these,” Kazumi said, his excitement showing under the elegant surface.  
“Really? How did you know the company then?”  
“My family has investments with them. But,” he added with a hint of a grin, “my father gets seasick. Of course, no one can ever know.”  
Jaime snickered.  
“Well, I say we toast Chrono, and doing things your father can’t!”  
“I agree,” Ibuki said.  
“Shall we call for drinks then?”  
But they didn’t have to call for anything, because at that precise moment, the waiter who had ushered them on board arrived with a tray and four glasses.  
Three contained Champagne. One contained something that was definitely not.  
The colour was almost right. But there was no foam, and no bubbles.  
“We were instructed to prepare apple juice for Mister Shindou,” the waiter informed them.  
Ignoring Jaime’s barely contained laugh, Chrono took his glass.  
“Thank you,” he told the waiter, before following with a muttered “thanks, Shion” as soon as the waiter had left.  
“To your last year without alcohol?” Ibuki suggested, smiling.  
Chrono sighed.  
“Well, I’ve been told to enjoy it while it lasts,” he said, lifting his glass. “To my last year before everyone can tease me relentlessly for things I said when I was fifteen.”  
Ibuki blushed slightly. Kazumi looked at both of them, confused. Jaime, fortunately, did not elaborate, and contented himself with snickering again.  
“Well, I think I have a better toast,” Ibuki said, recovering.  
“Oh~?”  
He lifted his glass.  
“To Chrono.”  
This time, it was Chrono’s turn to blush.  
“You guys…”  
“To Chrono,” Kazumi echoed.  
“To Chrono!” Jaime concluded brightly, lifting his own glass to meet the two others.  
They waited. Chrono fought with his embarrassment, the old urge to deflect attention resurfacing for a second. But as he looked up at their faces, what he saw was not just affection, but genuine happiness.  
Maybe there was no escaping it. He’d have to learn to accept being celebrated, at least a little.  
He lifted his glass, and gently knocked it against the others.

**Author's Note:**

> This was so much longer than I had planned oh my god.  
> ANYWAY thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it, please leave a comment <3 They do keep the writing engine running, especially in these trying times.


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